Hey, you look REALLY GOOD!

 

That's what Randy said to me the other day when he saw me running on the treadmill at the Sheriff gym. It really put some steam under my wings. It was the first time I wore shorts and a tank top in a long time. It's snowing outside, but I get hot when I run indoors.

The unsolicited genuine comment felt so good. Of course, I know Randy loves me no matter what, even if I weighed 200 pounds. But still, knowing I'm making progress and getting noticed feels really good.

I did an hour and 14 minutes on the treadmill, the first half easy steady state, then the 2nd half HIIT.

It feels good to run!

My shoulder is slowly healing. I still have to wear the sling with a pad that holds my arm out a little. Next week I get to take the pad off and just wear the sling for another two weeks. I also start PT next week.

Randy and I went on a short hike the other day. There was still a chill in the air, and the snow melted quite a bit. We couldn't get up to our normal trail, but we parked and went along another and turned around at this beautiful waterfall. Since then, it's been snowing and today we couldn't get to this spot so I'm glad we went for the hike when we could.

I'm progressing with my running. I finally got to my pre-surgery pace for the 8 miles. I'm getting kind of tired of the hills and can't wait to go run on a flat course to see what my time will be. It's hard not to compare myself to my younger self.

When I ran the marathon earlier in my life, here were my times:

1987, age 26, 4:00:26
1988, age 27, 3:49:25
1996, age 35, 4:24:27
1997, age 36, 4:02:28
1998, age 37, 4:08:11
2000, age 39, 4:15:55

I was progressively becoming more overweight for the last few marathons. I kept thinking training for them would help me lose weight, but I did not have the knowledge about calories. It's very hard to train for a marathon and keep your calories under control, especially for women. The extra endurance training makes us very hungry!

I will be lucky if I can finish this year within the 6 hour cut off!

I am still tracking my calories and workout burn in the excel spreadsheet with the graph, compared against my TDEE. It's the most important part of weight management. I'm far from perfect with my macros and calories, but I am NEVER GIVING UP, that is why I'm making progress.

I'm running the marathon this year with our Sheriff team. Our plan is to run it together. I hope I don't slow the team down. I'll see how it goes as the year progresses.

I took a little video during yesterday's run. It was cold, but it was fun watching the snowflakes come down as I ran. I was totally soaked when I got home, but it's more fun than running in the rain.

Actually, the rain isn't bad if you are already running and warmed up and in the groove.

Yesterday when it started snowing, I bundled up and went for a short run.  I was tired from yesterday's HIIT, but a mile or so into the run I started feeling good and pushed myself and got my time down to closer to an 11-minute mile average. It's mostly uphill going out, then mostly downhill coming back. I had some quicker miles going downhill. As soon as I can take the sling off, I'll go into town and run on the track. It will be boring but better than a treadmill. I want to see how my pace is for 8-10 miles without hills. I don't feel it's safe to run down the hill towards Sacramento, so the track in town will have to do. There are no flat sections up where I live, and I always avoid big cities where the flat trails are. That's just the new world we live in.

We have one baby Scottish fold kitten waiting to go into a home. We keep him isolated in the kitten room. He gets lonely, so we started letting Nibblet play with him. We let Nibblet in the kitten room for a little while a couple times every day now. It's nice because our other cats don't play with Nibblet as much and he's still only a 6-month-old kitten and wants to play. The baby kitten is also learning to be on the leash.

That's it for now. My life is snow, kittens, chores, running, healing, studying IT certifications, keeping good healthy food available for both Randy and I, and a little bit of reading and streaming video to relax. 

I hope all is well for you!

Roberta

Never Settle

Never Give Up

Live Your Dream/Destiny